Body of day-old girl found in well in Rajasthan

According to police, the body was spotted Monday night in the well near Sajjangarh village in the district, some 200 km from Jaipur. However, the body could only be extricated Tuesday.

"Some villagers had gone to fetch water from the well when they realised that a body was floating on the surface. They immediately informed police following which a team was rushed there," a police officer told IANS.

He added that efforts continued throughout the night to take the body out.

"The girl is a day-old. It seems someone dumped her alive. We are questioning the staff of nearby nursing homes and hospitals to ascertain the identity of the parents," the officer added.

The officer said prima facie, it seems that the child was dumped by her parents as it was a girl.

Incidents of infant girls being found abandoned are quite frequent in the area. Several incidents of girls being abandoned by their parents have been reported in Rajasthan recently in a grim reminder of the fact that girls are less desirable than boys here.

An eight-month-old girl was found wrapped in a cloth near a reservation window of the Rajasthan Roadways bus stand in Bundi May 19. Similarly, an infant girl, apparently abandoned by her parents, was found at the doorstep of a children's home in Udaipur May 9.

According to Census 2011, Rajasthan now has 883 girls between the ages of 0-6 for every 1,000 boys. The child sex ratio in 2001 was 909.

Due to alarming number of female foeticide and infanticide cases, the Rajasthan government had last month announced it would frame a 'girl policy' to check the increasing number of female.